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Mathematics education in the United Kingdom is largely carried out at ages 5–16 atprimary school andsecondary school (though basic numeracy is taught at an earlier age). However voluntaryMathematics education in the UK takes place from 16 to 18, insixth forms and other forms offurther education. Whilst adults can study the subject atuniversities andhigher education more widely. Mathematics education is not taught uniformly as exams and the syllabus vary across the countries of the United Kingdom, notably Scotland.
TheSchool Certificate was established in 1918, for education up to 16, with theHigher School Certificate for education up to 18; these were both established by theSecondary Schools Examinations Council (SSEC), which had been established in 1917.
TheAssociation of Teachers of Mathematics was founded in 1950.
TheJoint Mathematical Council was formed in 1963 to improve the teaching of mathematics in UK schools. TheMinistry of Education had been created in 1944, which then became the Department of Education and Science in 1964. TheSchools Council was formed in 1964, which regulated the syllabus of exams in the UK, and existed until 1984. The exam bodyMathematics in Education and Industry in Trowbridge was formed in 1963, formed by theMathematical Association; and the first exam ofAdditional Mathematics was first set in 1965. TheInstitute of Mathematics and its Applications was formed in 1964, and is the UK's chartered body for mathematicians, being based inEssex.
Before calculators, many calculations would be doneby hand withslide rules andlog tables.
TheNuffield Mathematics Teaching Project started in September 1964, which lasted until 1971, to look at primary education, under Edith Biggs, from the Schools Inspectorate.[1] The Nuffield Foundation Primary Mathematics Project began, with the 'Mathematics for the Majority Project' was for people up to 16 years old and was for slow learners.
The 1968Dainton Report recommended that some sort of Maths education continued up to the age of 18.
Decimal Day, on 15 February 1971, allowed less time on numerical calculations at school. TheMetric system has curtailed lengthy calculations as well; the US, conversely, largely does not have themetric system.
AtRuskin College on Monday 18 October 1976 Labour Prime MinisterJim Callaghan made a radical speech decrying the lack of numeracy in school leavers, possibly prompted by theWilliam Tyndale affair in 1975.[2] The Prime Minister also questioned why so many girls gave up science before leaving secondary school.
But the Labour Party, instead, took curriculum change slowly, merely setting up theCommittee of Inquiry into the Teaching of Mathematics in Schools, under SirWilfred Cockcroft, withHilary Shuard andElizabeth Williams. The subsequent reportMathematics Counts, was published in 1982; it offered few radical changes.
In March 1977 the government had a £3.9m scheme to recruit 1,200 more teachers.[3] In England and Wales, there was a shortfall of 1,120 Maths teachers, 424 in physical sciences, and 525 in Design and Technology. It would be paid for by theTraining Services Agency, and run by theLocal Government Training Board.[4] The scheme was open to people over 28, who had not attended a higher education course in the last five years.[5]
Electroniccalculators began to be owned at school from the early 1980s, becoming widespread from the mid-1980s. Parents and teachers believed that calculators would diminish abilities ofmental arithmetic.Scientific calculators came to the aid for those working outlogarithms andtrigonometric functions.
The BBC2 'Horizon' documentaryTwice Five Plus the Wings of a Bird on Monday 28 April 1986, narrated byPeter Jones, looked at why people disliked abstract Maths, notably in the teenage years.[6][7]
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed that in some topics, the UK apparently had adequate Mathematics teaching, and from such reports SirKeith Joseph merely implemented feasibility studies of national attainment standards, but the next education secretary,Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking, wanted a lot more than merefeasibility studies. From hearing reports of national industrial failure being caused by insufficient mathematical abilities, he swiftly proposed a national curriculum in January 1987, to start in September 1988.Anita Straker and Hilary Shuard were part of the team that developed the primary national curriculum.
Since 1988, exams in Mathematics at age sixteen, except Scotland, have been provided by theGCSE.
From the 1990s, mainly the late 1990s, computers became integrated into mathematics education at primary and secondary levels in the UK.
On Wednesday 18 November 1992 exam league tables were published for 108 local authorities, in England, under the Education SecretaryJohn Patten, Baron Patten. The tables showed GCSE and A-levels for all 4,400 state secondary schools in England. Independent schools results were shown from 1993, and would include truancy rates. Left-wing parent groups, teachers' unions had opposed the move. Labour said it showed the government'ssimplistic approach to education standards, adding thatraw results cannot reflect the real achievement of schools. The Liberal Democrats were not opposed, but thought that any information being provided was limited.Ofsted would be brought in the next year by Education MinisterEmily Blatch, Baroness Blatch.[8]
Thespecialist schools programme was introduced in the mid-1990s in England. Fifteen newCity Technology Colleges (CTCs) from the early 1990s often focussed on Maths.
In 1996 theUnited Kingdom Mathematics Trust was formed to run theBritish Mathematical Olympiad, run by theBritish Mathematical Olympiad Subtrust. The United Kingdom Mathematics Trust summer school is held atThe Queen's Foundation in Birmingham each year.
TheNational Numeracy Strategy, costing £60m, was devised by Anita Straker, for the government's Numeracy Task Force, for primary schools, for implementation in autumn 1999. Prof David Reynolds, ofNewcastle University, was the chairman.[9] He had appeared in aPanorama documentary on Maths education on 3 June 1996.[10] The 60-page report in January 1998 recommended that children under the age of 8 should not have calculators.[11]
TheMillennium Mathematics Project was set up in 1999 at Cambridge byJohn D. Barrow, with 21 staff,[12][13] with deputy director Julia Hawkins,[14] now directed byJulia Gog.
Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the widened specialist schools programme; by 2007 there were 222 of these in England.
TheExcellence in Cities report was launched in March 1999, which led to theAdvanced Extension Award in 2002, replacing the S-level for the top 10% of A-level candidates. Since 2008, the AEA is only available for Maths, provided byEdexcel; the scheme was introduced when the A* grade was introduced; the scheme was provided until 2018.
In February 2004, the Smith Report, by the Principal of Queen Mary College, looked at how good exams were. People could pass at grade B at GCSE, but had taken much different type of exams. The report concluded that people could pass such exams, but lacked scant real-life proficiency at Maths.[15]
A-level Maths entries dropped from 67,000 in 2000 to 53,000 in 2004.
The IGCSE, a more rigorous exam, was introduced in 2004, but the Labour government banned state secondary schools from being allowed to set the exam. It was viewed as 'elitist'.
In a 2006 House of Lords report on science education, the Lib Dem chairBaroness Sharp, took an interest in the reduced participation in Maths in schools; she had worked with theScience Policy Research Unit at theUniversity of Sussex. The 2001 report by the LordsScience and Technology Committee led to the National Science Learning Centre (Science Learning Centres) at National STEM Centre, with theUniversity of York in 2006, with a Maths centre atUniversity of Southampton.
TheNational Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics was founded 2006, after theSmith Report, being now inSheffield.
The National Higher Education Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (HE STEM) Programme was founded in August 2009 byHEFCE andHEFCW; the scheme had six regions across England and Wales, working with the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester Metropolitan, Southampton and Swansea; it was funded by £21m, and developed by theUniversity of Birmingham STEM Education Centre; the scheme finished in July 2012.[16] Also involved was the MSOR centre of the HEA (nowAdvance HE) Subject Centre, and the Centre for Excellence in University Wide Mathematics and Statistics Support atLoughborough University.[17]
The HEA subject centres closed in August 2011.
In September 2012 ProfJeremy Hodgen, the chairman of theBritish Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, produced a report made by Durham University and KCL, where 7,000 children at secondary school took 1970s Maths exams. Maths exams results over the same time scale had doubled in grades, but the researchers did not find much improvement. Proficiency in routine Maths was better, but proficiency with difficult Maths was not as good.[18]
Mathematicsfree schools were opened in 2014 - theKing's College London Mathematics School inLambeth, andExeter Mathematics School in Devon; both were selectivesixth form colleges; others opened atLiverpool andLancaster; more selective sixth formmaths schools are to open in Cambridge, Surrey, and Durham.
A newer curriculum for Maths GCSE (and English) was introduced in September 2015, with a new grading scale of 1–9.
In August 2015 the ACME claimed that there was a shortfall of 5,500 secondary school Maths teachers, in England. But this shortfall was hugely uneven. Comprehensive schools in wealthy areas or state grammar schools were not commonly short of Maths teachers, but secondary schools in less-salubrious places were often hideously short of Maths teachers.[19]
TheAcademy for the Mathematical Sciences was formed in Cambridge in 2025, funded by theEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.[20]
Mathematics education in England up to the age of 19 is provided in theNational Curriculum by theDepartment for Education, which was established in 2010.
Early years education is called theEarly Years Foundation Stage in England, which includes arithmetic. In England there are 24,300 schools, of which 3,400 are secondary.
The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
Mathematics is a related subject in which pupils must be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education, therefore, provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, and curiosity about the subject. Pupils should build connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge in science, geography, computing and other subjects.[21]
Wales takes the GCSE and A-level in Mathematics, but has its ownDepartment for Education and Skills. Wales does not produce school league tables. Wales has 1550 schools, of which 180 are secondary.
Education Scotland, formed in 2011, regulateseducation at school in Scotland, with qualifications monitored by theScottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and the Mathematics syllabus follows the country'sCurriculum for Excellence. Scotland does not produce school league tables. Scotland has 5,050 schools, of which 350 are secondary.
Northern Ireland is the only country in the UK to have exclusively selective schools - it has sixty ninegrammar schools. Mathematics education is provided by theDepartment of Education (DENI), with further education provided by theDepartment for Employment and Learning. Northern Ireland has 1120 schools, of which 190 are secondary.
In the 1980s the education researcherSig Prais looked at mathematics education inGermany and the UK. He found that the teaching of mathematics of an appropriate level, in Germany, worked much better than to bludgeon all levels of mathematics onto all abilities in British comprehensive schools.[22] In preparation for the new national curriculum in 1988, Sig Prais said 'There is an enormous burden on the teacher facing a mixed ability class. At age five, mixed ability classes are not such a problem. You can assume that nobody knows anything, but as the children process through the school, some will not have grasped all that they should, and they never catch up. In some countries, children are not allowed to move into the secondary schools until they are ready for it. They retake the lessons until they are.'[23]
The Department of Education and Science set up an Assessment of Performance Unit in 1976 to monitor attainment of children at a national level, with standards of mathematics being monitored from 1978 by theNational Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Before this time, assessment of primary school standards had not been carried out at a national level.
Children at primary school are expected to know theirtimes tables. Children are taught aboutlong division,fractions,decimals,averages,ratios,negative numbers, andlong multiplication.
Study of Mathematics is compulsory up to theschool leaving age in the UK. TheProgramme for International Student Assessment coordinated by theOECD currently ranks the knowledge and skills of British 15-year-olds in mathematics and science above OECD averages.[24] In 2011, theTrends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) rated 13–14-year-old pupils in England and Wales 10th in the world for maths and 9th for science.[25]
Typically studied by the vast majority of students in year 10 and year 11 (though in exceptional cases, can be taken earlier). GCSE is graded on a 1-9 scale, and students are able to choose between foundation tier (where the highest obtainable grade is 5), and higher tier (where grades up to 9 can be obtained).
Although the specifications vary between exam boards, the overarching topics studied in GCSE include number theory, algebra, ratio, proportion & rates of change; geometry & measures, probability, and statistics. Commonly assessed topics are quadratic equations, trigonometric functions and arithmetic sequences.
The three main exam boards in the UK require students to complete one paper with no calculator, as well as two more papers where students can use a calculator. It is expected that students have a scientific calculator in order to write out longer operations. The papers are usually sat at the end of year 11 in June, but they are also organised in November as some sixth form students re-sit.
Additional Mathematics GCSE can also be taken, which extends many of the topics found in regular GCSE maths, as well as introducing more advanced topics such as logarithms and calculus. It is considered good preparation for A-Level maths, with some schools requiring students to take Additional maths to continue their mathematical journey.
Similar to GCSE, IGCSE mathematics is mostly taken by 15-16 year olds at the end of a two-year study period. However, the style of question can differ slightly to appear more globally relevant. As well as this, some topics differ between the two, most notably IGCSE having slightly fewer statistics topics in favour of introducing more advanced pure maths topics such as differentiation and arithmetic series.
IGCSE maths is only set by Pearson Edexcel and CIE.
Qualifications vary by region; theEast Midlands and London have the most degree-qualified Maths teachers andNorth East England the least.[26] For England about 40% mostly have a maths degree and around 20% have a BSc degree with QTS or a BEd degree. Around 20% have a PGCE, and around 10% have no higher qualification than A level Maths.
For schools without sixth forms, only around 30% of Maths teachers have a degree, but for schools with sixth forms and sixth form colleges around 50% have a Maths degree.
There are around 27,500 Maths teachers in England, of whom around 21,000 are Maths specialists; there are around 31,000 science teachers in England.
Due to a large increase in difficulty between GCSE and A-Level, it is widely recommended that students obtain at least grade 6 (with many institutions requiring grade 7) at GCSE in order to study A-Level maths.
AtA-level, participation by gender is broadly mixed; about 60% of A-level entrants are male, and around 40% are female.[27]Further Mathematics is an additional course available at A-level. A greater proportion of females take Further Maths (30%) than take Physics (15%), which at A-level is overwhelmingly a male subject.
From the UPMAP project (Understanding Participation rates in post-16 Mathematics and Physics) of theESRCTargeted Initiative on Science and Mathematics Education (TISME), in conjunction with theInstitute of Physics, it was found that uptake of Maths A-level was linked to the grade at GCSE. From 2012 figures, 79% with A*, 48% of A, 15% of B and 1% of grade C chose Maths in the 6th form. For English, History and Geography, 30% with grade B, and 10% with grade C chose the course in the 6th form.
TheHouse of Lords July 2012 reportHigher Education in STEM Subjects recommended that everyone study some type of Maths after 16. For less-able sixth formers, there was the AS level titled 'Use of Mathematics'.[28]
Professor Robert Coe,[29] Director of theCentre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) atDurham University conducted research on grade inflation. By 2007, 25% of Maths A-level grades were an A; he found that an A grade A-level would have been a grade B in 1996 and a grade C in 1988. The Labour government wanted to expand higher education, so required 'proof' that academic standards at A-level appeared to be rising, or at least not falling, so requiring higher education to expand for this wider apparent academic achievement.
In 2014 Maths A-level became the most popular A-level, overtaking English Literature.
People not taking Maths A-level can take the Core Mathematics Level 3 Certificate, developed byMathematics in Education and Industry in Wiltshire.
It was introduced by education ministerLiz Truss from September 2015; her father was a university Maths lecturer. From 2014 it had been trialled in 170 schools. It was hoped that 200,000 sixth formers could study the course for three hours per week, but would possibly require 1,000 extra Maths teachers. 20% of sixth formers studied some kind of Mathematics in 2015.[30]
TheAdvisory Committee on Mathematics Education wanted the Core Maths introduction. In August 2016, there were 3,000 entries for the first Core Maths Level 3 exam. Consequently, the Conservative government was looking at making Maths education up to 18 compulsory.[31]
Admission to Mathematics at university in the UK will require three A-levels, often good A-levels (which is subjective), though that actually depends on the university, doesn't it. It is prevalently males who study Maths at university, and has been for decades.
There are around 42–43,000 Maths undergraduates at British universities, with around 27,000 being male and around 16–17,000 being female. Mathematics at university is also taught for other physical sciences and Engineering, but much fewer women than men are taught on these types of courses.
Educational series on television have included
Of all A-level entrants atKey Stage 5, 23% take Maths A-level, with 16% of all female entrants and 30% of all male entrants; 4% of all entrants take Further Maths, with 2% of female entrants and 6% of male entrants. By number of A-level entries, 11.0% were Maths A-levels with 7.7% female and 15.0% male.[49]
In England in 2016 there were 81,533 entries for Maths A-level, with 65,474 from the state sector; there were 14,848 entries for Further Maths with 10,376 from the state sector
Entries for Further Maths in 2016 by region -
Results shown are for 2016. In the 1980s, some areas with low Maths participation at A-level lost all sixth forms at the area's comprehensive schools, being replaced with stand-alonesixth form colleges, such as in Manchester and Portsmouth; this course of action may have helped in attracting qualified Maths teachers to those areas.
The supply ofqualified (QTS in England and Wales) Maths teachers in the UK is largely apostcode lottery.
The north of England (except Lancashire) has a worse record for Mathematics entries at A-level than other regions.
Trafford entered 505, which is high for a small borough and almost the same number as Cumbria. Kirklees entered 661, which is more than Sheffield's 596; Kirklees is a much smaller borough by population than Sheffield.[50]
Hampshire and Hertfordshire are the top two for Maths and Further Maths
